By about 500 BC, the Archaic culture, which had been fairly uniform across Florida, began to devolve into more distinct regional cultures. The Calusa used wooden dugout canoes to aid them in fishing and for transport. Artist's conception of town chief at the Calusa town of Tampa (present day Pineland) (Art by Merald Clark.) Were theonlyPop Archaeology site combining scientific research with out-of-the-box perspectives. According to Menendez, in 1566 the town of Calos contained a central mound where special masks were kept and where human sacrifices were made. The Calusa Domain. One of the causes of this was the raids conducted by rival tribes from Georgia and South Carolina. "They had an established religion. The Calusa (said to mean fierce people ) are a Native American tribe that once inhabited the southwestern coast of Florida. The Calusa may have been the only ancient people in North America who established a kingdom without practicing agriculture. While a few Calusa individuals may have stayed behind and been absorbed into the Seminole, no documentation supports that. Calusa ceremonies included processions of priests and singing women. The first Spanish explorers found that these Indians were not very friendly. Honestly, we have explored a very small sample of Mound Key and other nearby island sites., ln the next couple of years, Thompson added, Id like to return to Mound Key to look more closely at the fort and its structures to really delve into Calusa-Spanish interactions.. The Calusa people based most of their diet on seafood. The Calusa Indians, who live in southwest Florida, are weakened by epidemics. While archaeologists in Florida have recovered several village sites of Calusa habitation, including burial mounds, shell ridges, canals, and plazas, The University Museums 1896 excavations at Key Marco provided extraordinary clues to our understanding of Calusa ceremonialism and daily life. Among other things. Upon learning that the Spaniards did not intend to provide food, clothing, and other gifts, the Calusa rebelled, tenaciously holding to their own beliefs and practices. The Calusa had an established religion and practiced human sacrifice, and many temples were found built upon mounds. They began preliminary investigations of the fort, which was located on Mound 2 and housed one of the first Jesuit missions established in the U.S. "Florida Indians of Past and Present", in Carson, Ruby Leach and, Goggin, John M., and William C. Sturtevant. The Caloosahatchee Region". Ancient Origins 2013 - 2023Disclaimer- Terms of Publication - Privacy Policy & Cookies - Advertising Policy -Submissions - We Give Back - Contact us. People commonly occupied both fresh and saltwater wetlands. After the outbreak of war between Spain and England in 1702, slaving raids by Uchise Creek and Yamasee Indians allied with the Province of Carolina began reaching far down the Florida peninsula. Perhaps a dancer wore the mask and carried the figurehead of the particular animal he was emulating (Cushing 1896). They also claimed authority over the tribes of the east coast, north to about Cape Canaveral. The Calusa Tribe had a large population and were well-organized. Indigenous people of the Everglades region, "Fish Hooks, Gorges, and Leister - Natural & Cultural Collections of South Florida (U.S. National Park Service)", Evidence for a Calusa-Tunica Relationship, Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Calusa&oldid=1140745100, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles using infobox ethnic group with image parameters, Language articles with unreferenced extinction date, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Bullen, Adelaide K. (1965). The Calusa have long fascinated archaeologists because they were a fisher-gatherer-hunter society that attained unusual social complexity, said William Marquardt, curator emeritus of South Florida Archaeology and Ethnography at the Florida Museum of Natural History. They fished and hunted for their food and would catch things like: mullet, catfish, eels, turtles, deer, conchs, clams, oysters, and crabs. Office: Old St. Luke's Hospital. /* 728x15 link ad */ [20][21], A few vocabulary examples from Granberry's work are listed below:[22]. The Calusa, who had no immunity against such illnesses, were wiped out in large numbers. The Jews are not a race. Uniquely, it was powered by fishing, not farming. The Spanish left less description on what the Calusa women wore. (1964). The two forms together may have indicated his transformation (Figs. The archaeology of the Calusa is important worldwide in that it illustrates the development of very pronounced hierarchy, inequality, monumentality and large-scale infrastructure by hunter-gatherer-fisher societies, said Chris Rodning of Tulane University, who was not involved with this research. Although each tribe and region was different, the division of labor between men and women was generally similar across most of the Native American tribes. Miccosukee. Warriors killed all the adult men. They were a very innovative and prosperous tribe, and had a number of traditions that set them apart from other tribes in the area. Salvaged goods and survivors from wrecked Spanish ships reached the Calusa during the 1540s and 1550s. The Calusa painted their bodies on a regular basis, but there was no report of tattooing among them. THE CALUSA INDIANS OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA. Ancient Chinese Earthquake Detector Invented 2,000 Years Ago Really Worked! Calusa beliefs included a trinity of governing spirits. By the 1700s though, the Tequesta people had disappeared. Calusa means "fierce people," and they were described as a fierce, war-like people. The Calusa made bone and shell gauges that they used in net weaving. Are the Misty Peaks of the Azores Remnants of the Legendary Atlantis? It was reputed in local legend to be the seat of the god Wotan and to be haunted. [9] There is also evidence that as early as 2,000 years ago, the Calusa cultivated a gourd of the species Cucurbita pepo and the bottle gourd, which were used for net floats and dippers. Want this question answered? Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region. Well-preserved nets, net floats, and hooks were found at Key Marco, in the territory of the neighboring Muspa tribe. Native Americans enjoyed a wide variety of entertainment in the form of sports, games, music, dance, and festivals. The process of shaping the boat was achieved by burning the middle and subsequently chopping and removing the charred center, using robust shell tools. So, we needed information on large-scale architecture, the timing and tempo of shell midden mound formation and the timing of large-scale public architecture., Florida Museum illustration by Merald Clark. [Online]Available at: http://www.sanibelhistory.org/calusa_history.htm, Wu Mingren (Dhwty) has a Bachelor of Arts in Ancient History and Archaeology. By the early 1600s the Calusa returned to Mound Key and reestablished their capital. When the Spanish explored the coast of Florida, they soon became the targets of the Calusa, and this tribe is said to have been the first one that the explorers wrote home about. While the Calusa managed to survive that encounter, the 250 years that followed brought intermittent contact with other conquistadors, Christians missionaries, and in later years, English and French explorer-traders who vied for the territory, often with the help of native allies. In 1569, just three years after the Spanish fort was built, the Calusa attacked a Spanish supply ship, prompting more violence. They left 1,700 behind. It was during this phase of research that the team located and documented the massive kings house, showing it was indeed every bit as impressive as Spanish accounts, which claimed it was large enough to accommodate some 2,000 people. The Spanish departed and returned to Puerto Rico. South Florida Archaeology and Ethnography, South Florida Archaeology & Ethnography Collection. The chief also married women from subject towns and allied tribes. Though not all have survived, carvings included a sea turtle, alligator, pelican, fish-hawk, owl, bear, crab, wolf, wildcat, mountain lion, and a deer, many of which were painted black, white, gray-blue, and brownish-red. The immensity of the kings house, as well as the huge shell mounds and the canals required large amounts of labor and mechanisms to mobilize and to organize that labor that he thinks are indicative of a lower class that worked at the behest of the Calusas elites. Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, a Spaniard held captive by the Calusa in the 16th century, recorded that Calusa meant "fierce people" in their language. One of the most notable traditions of the Calusa was their use of shell mounds. Wiki User. It is likely there are descendants of the Calusa living among the Native American people of Florida and in Cuba today., In terms of Mound Key, much more can be learned about the Spanish fort and mission, the relations between the Calusa and the Spaniards and the earlier, pre-contact occupations of the island, Marquardt said. Map of Calusa territory in Florida. They arrived in seven vessels and climbed to the peak of Mound Key, a 30-foot-high, human-made island of shells and sand, to greet the king. Menndez married Carlos' sister, who took the baptismal name Doa Antonia at conversion. Gainesville: University of Florida Press: Florida Museum of Natural History, 1991. It is recorded that in that year, the Calusa chief formed an alliance with the Spanish governor, Menndez de Avils. One of the most popular Native American sports was lacrosse. Index of Indigenous languages Excavation of the watercourts yielded artifacts like cordage that are not normally preserved at archaeological sites. google_ad_width = 728; Escampaba may be related to a place named Stapaba, which was identified in the area on an early 16th-century map. Milanich, Jerald. Their gods were living all around them. Native Americans of the California Coast: The Chumash By Damian Bacich The Chumash are a widespread group of California native people who lived along the southern California coast and the Santa Barbara Channel Islands. One illustration of the sophistication of the Calusa can be found in eyewitness accounts of an event in 1566. Some of the "Spanish Indians" (often of mixed Spanish-Indian heritage) who worked at the fishing camps likely were descended from Calusa.[29]. However, they would suffer the same fate as many of the other Native American tribes. They built massive mounds of shells and sand, dug large canals, engineered sophisticated fish corrals, held elaborate ceremonies, created remarkable works of art, such as intricately carved wooden masks and traversed the waters in canoes made from hollowed-out logs. By interceding with these spirits, it was believed that the chief was ensuring that his people would be well-supplied by the land. Montauk Previous indigenous cultures had lived in the area for thousands of years. There are probably people of Calusa descent still alive today. Was this German silver mine really defended by two Roman forts and a line of "spike defenses? 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Cushings knowledge of American Indian culture, and specifically his experiences at Zuni Pueblo, helped him make rapid judgments about objects which in many cases were disintegrating before him. But the Spanish not only refused to fight Caalus rivals, they also wanted to convert his people to Catholicism, which eventually led to conflict between the Spanish and the Calusa. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004. Julian Granberry has suggested that the Calusa language was related to the Tunica language of the lower Mississippi River Valley. 215.898.4000. The site of the excavation appears to be linked with Calusa ceremonialism and was one location at which wooden carvings, probably used in ritual, were housed. Ivar the Boneless: Viking Warrior, Ruler and Raider, The Irish Story and Legend of C Chulainn, What is Shambhala? It's also rich with the history and culture of the Calusa Indians, the Native Americans who preceded us, even if their footprints are a bit blurry. Calusa beliefs included a trinity of governing spirits. The plaques and other objects were often painted. The missionaries recognized that having a Calusa man cut his hair upon converting to Christianity (and European style) would be a great sacrifice. Chumash Tribe Facts: The Chumash Name Though questions about the Calusa and the use of some of these artifacts remain unanswered, early eyewitness accounts and ethnohistorical research, together with new archaeological developments in Florida, enhance our understanding of the cultural context within which these objects were made and used. 10 Innovative Medieval Weapons: You Would Not Want To Be At The Sharp End Of These! The Calusa battle Spain over conversion. Known as the "Shell Indians", the Calusa are . Additionally, they had (as their name suggests) a fierce, war-like reputation. One of Cushings crew members, Wells M. Sawyer, was an artist and photographer; he painted lifelikewatercolors and took field photos of many of the specimens as they came from the mud. Ivar the Boneless was likely the son of legendary Viking king Ragnar Lothbrok, and raided alongside his father and brothers, eventually becoming ruler of York in England in the 9th century AD. He was aware, however, of the magnitude of his findings: the remains of a highly organized maritime society whose members performed elaborate rituals and whose artists possessed remarkable abilities in wood carving. At the time of the excavations Cushing did not know the name or precise age of the Indians whose world he had discovered. Indeed, given the results of recent research, they are now considered one of the most politically complex groups of non-agriculturalists in the ancient world. The Calusa (/klus/ k-LOO-s) were a Native American people of Florida's southwest coast. Calusa beliefs included a trinity of governing spirits. The Calusa king Caalus, perched high on his throne in his grand house, watched as Pedro Menendez de Aviles, the first governor of La Florida, arrived with his entourage. The walls were covered entirely with masks colored red, white, and black (Hann 1991). The Carolinan colonists supplied firearms to the Creek and Yemasee, but the Calusa, who had isolated themselves from Europeans, had none. support our organization's work with endangered American Indian languages. 5,8,4) traveled this year, in an unprecedented loan of the Key Marco material, to the National Gallery of Art where they were exhibited as part of the Columbian Quincentenary exhibition, Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration. These figureheads will be on display in Philadelphia through 1992 in the Main Entrance of The University Museum. Shells and clay were used by the Calusa to create the foundation of their cities. They developed a complex culture based on estuarine fisheries rather than agriculture. Different tribes and regions had their own games and traditions. The Calusa used the canals to travel by canoe from their villages and ceremonial centers to coastal trading posts. 8, 9). 2013-09-27 21:18:35. Native American tribes The Calusa were a fascinating Native American people who populated the southwestern coast of Florida. The other two souls left the body after death and entered into an animal. An anonymous account mentions an autumn ceremony in which dancers wore animal masks (Coggin and Sturtevant 1964). Marquardt, W. H. (2014). Those excavations revealed rarely preserved objects of wood, such as masks, figureheads, bowls, and tools, which survived because of the wet environment. "Calusa". Though eschewing agriculture once. They are attacked by Spain, which in 1566 had established St. Augustine in the north. Franciscan friar Fray Lopez, director of the unsuccessful 1697 mission attempt, described the Calusa temples as very tall and wide, with a mound in the middle and a structure on the mound enclosed with reed mats and containing benches around the walls. The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Photo by Alina Zienowicz . Widmer cites George Murdock's estimate that only some 20 percent of the Calusa diet consisted of wild plants that they gathered. And to what extent does the occupational and architectural history speak to broader issues of Calusa complexity? For a long time, societies that relied on fishing, hunting and gathering were assumed to be less advanced, said Marquardt. American Archaeology cover, featuring Florida Museum illustration by Merald Clark. Different tribes had different names for the sport including . [2], Juan Rogel, a Jesuit missionary to the Calusa in the late 1560s, noted the chief's name as Carlos, but wrote that the name of the kingdom was Escampaba, with an alternate spelling of Escampaha. Historical documents indicate that by the mid-1700s, the dwindling Calusa population had fled to Cuba, or the Florida Keys. Around 1983, Donald found remains (ancient pottery and burial mounds) of Calusa Indians on some of his property, Josslyn Island. The Calusa also believed that three supernatural beings ruled the universe. He was also attacked by the Calusa. The architectural remains of the kings house were relatively easy to find, but difficult to interpret at first, Marquardt said. Calusa Protective Spell-Tampa This piece of folklore came from my co-worker, who grew up in Tampa, Florida. It has been speculatively identified as Calusa in origin. The Apalachee Tribe was among the most advanced and powerful Native American people in Florida. The fishing nets they used to catch food were made from palm tree fibers. An analysis of faunal remains at one coastal habitation site, the Wightman site (on Sanibel Island), showed that more than 93 percent of the energy from animals in the diet came from fish and shellfish, less than 6 percent of the energy came from mammals, and less than 1 percent came from birds and reptiles. 4-8). Additionally, it has been suggested that the population of this tribe may have reached 50000 people at one point of time. The Calusa resisted physical encroachment and spiritual conversion by the Spanish and their missionaries for almost 200 years. Return to our menu of Native American cultures In 1763, Spain ceded Florida to England and surviving Calusas were taken to Cuba. One example of a shell mound can be found at a site known as Mound Key at Estero Bay in Lee County. Cushings excavations took place along the coast. The Southeast is one of 10 culture areas that scholars use to study the Indigenous peoples of the United States and Canada. A diorama of a Calusa chief in the Florida Museum of Natural History. Each human had three souls, present in his shadow, his reflection in water and in the pupil of his eye. Their sophistication and fierceness enabled them to resist Spanish domination for some 200 years. Are there any Calusa people left? Some of the survivors were sent to Cuba by the Spanish, while others may have merged with other Floridian Indians and eventually joined the Seminole tribe. Philadelphia, PA 19104 Carlos was succeeded by his cousin (and brother-in-law) Felipe, who was in turn succeeded by another cousin of Carlos, Pedro. The chief lived in the main village at the mouth of the Miami River. How was the Calusa Indian nation organized? They believed in three superior beings, one controlled the weather, the others ruled the welfare of the tribe and warfare. The CalusaPeople of the Estuary. Historic sources reveal that they were a warlike people who economically and politically dominated most of southern Florida (Fig. By 880, a complex society had developed with high population densities. The priests wore carved masks, which were at other times hung on the walls inside a temple. Our open community is dedicated to digging into the origins of our species on planet earth, and question wherever the discoveries might take us. [Online]Available at: http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/lessons/calusa/calusa1.htm, Florida Museum of Natural History, 2016. The Spanish founded a mission on Biscayne Bay in 1743 to serve survivors from several tribes, including the Calusa, who had gathered there and in the Florida Keys. They established a complex, centralized government, constructed a canal system, the beginnings of organized religion, and the creating of many art forms. Image by Pat Payne for American Archaeology. The Beast with an insatiable Hunger for Human Flesh, Film Footage Provides Intimate View of HMS Gloucester Shipwreck, Top 8 Legendary Parties - Iconic Celebrations in Ancient History, The Spanish Inquisition: The Truth Behind the Black Legend (Part II), The Spanish Inquisition: The Truth behind the Dark Legend (Part I), Bloodthirsty Buddhists: The Sohei Warrior Monks of Feudal Japan, Caesars Savage Human Skewers Unearthed In German Fort, The Red Taj Mahal and the Dutch Hessings of India. This is still a popular sport today. Although we cannot be sure what values the masks and animal figureheads held for the Calusa, they may have been markers of clan affiliation, and the animals represented most likely played important roles in Calusa mythology and religion. It has also been stated that the Spanish were brought into a large temple, where they saw carved and painted wooden masks covering its walls. Tabby was an Old World concrete consisting of lime from burned shells mixed with sand, ash, water and broken shells. Menndez left a garrison of soldiers and a Jesuit mission, San Antn de Carlos, at the Calusa capital. [7] The contemporary archeologists MacMahon and Marquardt suggest this statement may have been a misunderstanding of a requirement to marry a "clan-sister". The men were responsible for work away from the home, like hunting and raiding. The capital of the Calusa, and where the rulers administered from, was Mound Key, near present day Estero, Florida. Engineering the courts required an intimate understanding of daily and seasonal tides, hydrology and the biology of various fish species, said Thompson. Openings in the berms likely allowed the Calusa to drive fish into the enclosures for short-term storage, and then they closed those openings with nets and wooden gates. The rich and relatively stable coastal ecology of southwest Florida provided an abundance of marine lifenumerous kinds of fish, shellfish, and sea mammalsthat was capable of supporting a large human population. . (*) denotes earlier century Calusa language records. He had a council which may have included one or more head priests and one or two high-ranking individuals involved in political and religious decision-making. Said by a Spaniard, Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, who was a captive among them for many years, to mean "fierce people," but it is perhaps more probable that, since it often appears in the form Carlos, it was, as others assert, adopted by the Calusa chief from the name of the Emperor Charles V, about whose greatness he had learned from Spanish prisoners. In a report from 1697, the Spanish noted 16 houses in the Calusa capital of Calos, which had 1,000 residents. Archaeological techniques were not very well defined in Cushings day, and though he took detailed notes of his findings, information on the stratigraphy of the site was not recorded. Darcie A. Macmahon and Dr. William H. Marquardt, an expert on the Calusa, have written a fascinating book that brings to life a group of people who disappeared from Florida in the 1700s. The Caloosahatchee culture inhabited the Florida west coast from Estero Bay to Charlotte Harbor and inland about halfway to Lake Okeechobee, approximately covering what are now Charlotte and Lee counties. Radiocarbon dating of organic materials associated with the watercourts indicates they were built between A.D. 1300 and 1400, toward the end of a second phase of construction on the kings house. [Online]Available at: http://www.calusalandtrust.org/who_were_the_calusa/who_were_the_calusa.htm, Ripley, K., 2016. Previous indigenous cultures had lived in the area for thousands of years. Mudlarker Finds Bronze Age Shoe on a UK Riverbank Dated 2,800 Years Old! The Calusa also used spears, hooks, and throat gorges to catch fish. Marquardt, William H. (2004). Photograph by Amanda Roberts Thompson, courtesy Florida Museum of Natural History The Calusa also famously resisted colonization and conversion. Native American art,